ZURICH: Switzerland’s largest bank UBS says it is in for a tough 2003 after falling to a 2002 4th-quarter net loss of 101 million Swiss francs (US$73.7mil) due to a one-off charge for realigning its brands.
UBS, one of Europe’s strongest and most risk-averse banks, painted a sobering outlook yesterday and said it saw no pickup soon in its performance, as the risk of war in Iraq hurt client sentiment and markets looked set to remain weak. “Any recovery in the latter part of this year remains simply unpredictable,” UBS group president Peter Wuffli said.